Pop Report: TCG Continues Surge as PSA’s Most-Graded Category

PSA graded 150,151 cards last week for a 37% decrease compared to the prior week – largely due to the shortened holiday week.

Read this week’s Pop Report from GemRate for the latest news on PSA’s grading trends.

From a category perspective:

• All major sports were down again this past week while Pokemon continues to be the most graded category by a large margin.

The mix of the top 50 players (and characters) graded during the period were as follows

24 – TCG

12 – Basketball

8 – Baseball

3 – Football

1 – Golf

1 – Hockey

1 – F1

Below you’ll find a list of the top players graded for each category. 

An important consideration is what to make of this list. In the current situation where fears of junk slabs dominate the hobby, ranking high on this list likely is negatively correlated with price as that signals a meaningful number of slabs could move into the market in the near future. However, under normal circumstances, it could potentially be a leading indicator of positive price correlation as the list more accurately represents forward looking activity (i.e. bets being placed on players) and price potential.

BASKETBALL

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Ja Morant, Luka Doncic, Zion Williamson
• DOWN: LaMelo Ball, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird
• OUT: Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett

BASEBALL

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Derek Jeter, Wander Franco, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Luis Robert
• DOWN: Mike Trout, Bo Jackson, Fernando Tatis Jr
• OUT: Barry Bonds, Nolan Ryan

FOOTBALL

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP:  Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, Trevor Lawrence, Aaron Rodgers
• DOWN: Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes II, Barry Sanders
• OUT: Deion Sanders

SOCCER

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Cristiano Ronaldo, Youssoufa Moukoko, Jude Bellingham, Robert Lewandowski, Pele, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
• DOWN: Lionel Messi, Pedri, Christian Pulisic
• OUT: Erling Haaland, Neymar Jr.

Note: Hockey and soccer lists are more volatile because grading activity is lower. Much smaller moves in grading activity can have a big impact on these lists.

HOCKEY

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP:  Mario Lemieux, Kirill Kaprizov, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Auston Matthews, Patrick Roy, Steve Yzerman
• DOWN: Connor McDavid, 
• OUT: Peter Forsberg, Teemu Selanne, Dominik Hasek

Note: Hockey and soccer lists are more volatile because grading activity is lower. Much smaller moves in grading activity can have a big impact on these lists.

Data in the Sports Card Investor Pop Report series is provided by GemRate. Follow GemRate on Instagram and Twitter for more on the latest cards graded by PSA.

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